MAUI, HAWAII – As a professional travel photographer, I’m lucky that I get to travel to hotels all over California and Hawaii. But despite staying in hundreds of hotels, there’s one that I keep coming back to.
In fact, I’ve visited this property ten times over the last 15 years.
My wife and I went there for a babymoon right before our first son was born. We returned for a cocktail-making class to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, and again for a meal at Ferraro’s (my favorite restaurant in the world, on which more below) for my mom and father-in-laws’ 70th birthdays. My photos of the property have landed in WSJ, Forbes and more.
It’s the Four Seasons Resort Maui and Wailea, and it feels like a second home. Now, it’s just undergone a huge renovation and update. I returned with my wife and our three kids to try it out and share my review with you.
Table of Contents
The Basics
Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea is located on what’s widely considered Maui’s best beach.
It’s a secluded cove with a beautiful stretch of sand, a lava-rock outcropping that’s perfect for snorkeling (and where turtles love to hang out!), and beautiful, fine white sand.
There are views out over the Pacific Ocean, with Molokini, Lana’ii and the West Maui Mountains in the distance.
At night, you’ll see the most dramatic sunsets I’ve witnessed anywhere in the world.
FS Maui was built specifically to take advantage of this prime location. The resort is designed to evoke the flow of water from the mountains of the Upcountry to the sea below, with multiple flowing levels of rooms, restaurants, pools and cabanas constantly drawing the eye down to the ocean.
This location and the resort itself served as the backdrop for the first season of Netflix’s smash hit The White Lotus. FS Maui will forever be known as the original White Lotus hotel (although some elements from the show exist in reality, the property had to be kitsched up and rendered more ominous-looking before it could work as the show’s fictional hotel).
Four Seasons Maui is located in South Maui–a quieter part of the island than the busy Kaanapali resort district, and one with some of the island’s best weather. Winds can pick up in the afternoon, but most mornings the water is placid enough for an early swim or some canoeing (again, more below).
At about a 35 minute drive from Kahului airport, the resort is quite accessible. It was built in 1990 but has been continuously updated–including an ongoing renovation that began in 2025 and is quietly transforming the property.
As we’ll get to, the rooms and the property itself are beautiful. But FS Maui is also unusually well staffed. Although the exact headcount is private, the resort employs upwards of 800 staff members.
This high staff-to-guest ratio means an extremely high level of service–from valets and bellmen, multiple front desk staff and pool and beach attendants to twenty-eight concierges, countless bartenders and servers, and cleaners and engineers who tidy and troubleshoot 24/7.
Unlike many other hotels on Maui, FS Maui was able to retain almost all its staff through the closures and disruptions of the COVID pandemic. Many familiar faces have worked there for decades.
The staff are highly-trained and get to know guests by name. These personal relationships, developed over many years, help to make FS Maui feel special and welcoming.
Four Seasons Maui hosted us for our stay so we could review and photograph the property–thanks for that! Bay Area Telegraph covered incidentals and some staff gratuities.
Lobby and Grounds
As soon as you arrive at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, you enter a sprawling porte cochere with a living wall, sculptures by the renowned ceramicist Jun Kaneko, and a massive fountain.
A new guest arriving at the resort is rarely a surprise. A reservationist will have reached out to you beforehand to get your flight and transportation details, so staff are standing by when you get there.
After receiving a fresh lei, a staff member takes you directly to the front desk, where you’re greeted with FS Maui’s iconic ginger mint lemonade and a cool towel–a very nice little pick-me-up after a long flight from the mainland.
Front desk staff get you checked in, while a bellman takes your luggage straight to your room.
The whole process takes place in an expansive open-air lobby. FS Maui literally has no front door–the resort is open, 24/7/365, to its arriving guests on one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other.
From the lobby, you’ll have views over the pools and the beach below. Three restaurants (Lobby Lounge, the new KOMO, and Wolfgang Puck’s Spago) ring the lobby area. If you arrive in the evening, you’ll find a local musician and often hula dancers performing.
The majority of FS Maui’s rooms are located in a U-shaped tower that rises above the lobby and grounds. Unlike the massive resort towers of Oahu and even the busier West side of Maui, FS Maui’s room tower is only 8 stories tall–quite manageable and not too imposing.
You’ll get a special wristband that unlocks your room and other facilities, no keycard required.
In the middle of the tower’s U shape, one level above the lobby, you’ll find a huge rooftop garden where you can relax in a hammock or take a stroll. New this year is the Queen’s Garden, a special section devoted to Hawaiian culture and plant life (more in the Cultural Programs section below).
Tucked next to the lobby, outdoors, is the resort’s 18+ Serenity Pool, complete with a swim-up bar.
This location featured prominently in the White Lotus.
I recall bobbing around there with a tropical drink while visiting for the first time in 2015, before I had three kids in tow!
Below the lobby, you’ll find Duo and Ferraro’s, two more on-site restaurants, as well as the spa, a new quick-service food spot called Pantry, the main pool, and a separate keiki (kids) pool.
One more level down is the beach, as well as the Beachwalk Cafe, which serves drinks, sandwiches, shave ice and the like. The eponymous beach walk is a paved, stroller-friendly path you can walk to the other nearby resort, as well as the Shops at Wailea.
The Rooms
As befits a five-diamond resort, the rooms at Four Seasons Maui are beautiful. They’re also large, with even the smallest rooms topping 600 square feet.
If you’re looking for a deal, check out the Mountain View rooms. These face away from the ocean and are on the quieter rear side of the resort. They’re consistently the most budget-friendly, and they still get you into FS Maui. These are the rooms I booked for many years while staying at the property, and they’re lovely.
FS Maui also publishes Value Dates throughout the year, when demand is lower and rooms are less pricy.
Garden View rooms look out over the central garden, and tend to be a bit bigger. Partial and full ocean view rooms give you views out over the Pacific, and Executive and larger suites provide a bedroom with a separate living room.
There’s also the palatial Presidential Suite, which served as the infamous Pineapple Suite in White Lotus (after lots of modifications).
The great thing about FS Maui is that even the Mountain View rooms still come with nice amenities like an in-room Nespresso machine, a large bathroom, and a private balcony. There really aren’t any bad rooms here.
When we visited this year, we stayed in a two-queen bedroom with a full ocean view. Sitting on the private balcony looking towards the ocean was beautiful, and it makes a perfect spot for an in-room breakfast.
For those staying with kids, you can go for an Executive Suite, which provides more space. We were upgraded to one of these suites on a previous visit with all three kids, when our smallest ones were babies. There was ample room for two cribs (FS Maui provides these) and a pullout sofa bed in the living room.
For this visit, though, the two-queen format was perfect. It also included a pull-out couch that was extremely comfortable, leaving enough room to comfortably sleep all five of us.
One wrinkle is that the resort was still renovating guest rooms during our visit, and our room hadn’t yet been renovated. For that reason, I’m using official photos from the resort to show you what the new rooms look like, since I couldn’t photograph them directly, and the photos of our room will be outdated by the time you read this.
One quirky and fun feature at Four Seasons Maui is a dial in the bathroom that lets you play Hawaiian music over integrated speakers. This might sound kitschy, but it’s actually lovely and helps to set the tropical scene.
A Four Seasons Maui rep told me that guests love it so much, they put the music into a Spotify playlist so people could listen at home and virtually take themselves back to the resort after a trip.
This is a true luxury property, and the service level in your room fits that. You’ll get twice-daily maid service, which is great for when your kids track sand from the beach into the bathtub!
FS Maui’s cleaners are top notch. The room itself is rendered spotless each day, and there are nice little touches. Leave a book open on the bed, and you’ll come back to find a Four Seasons Maui bookmark keeping your place. Leave a lei out, and you’ll return to see it folded into a heart.
Little amenities tailored to guests’ preferences greet them after a few visits. FS Maui apparently knows we love Cheerios, and often leaves a box in the room.
If you visit with kids, they’ll enter to find their names written out in little letter-shaped sponges by the bathtub, and will find kid-friendly toiletries by the shower, as well as their own slippers by the bed.
For a family, I’d recommend the two queen bed configuration. Our room actually felt bigger than a small suite. For a couple, a Garden View or Ocean View room is perfect.
And again, if you’re looking for a less expensive accommodation, Mountain View rooms are ideal. You can always ask for a space-available upgrade at checkin, which the hotel can often honor.
The Food
Maui sits in an interesting place, food-wise. You’ve got tons of great local seafood, and a growing selection of produce and meat produced either on Maui itself or on other Hawaiian islands.
But you’ve also got influences from the locales that surround the Pacific Islands, and send visitors to them. Japan and America’s West Coast are a similar distance from the island, and both exert culinary influences.
So, too, does the rich history of immigration to the Hawaiian islands from the Philippines, Portugal, and both Japan and China.
All this combines with traditional Polynesian cooking to create quite a rich culinary tapestry. And FS Maui’s food selections capture quite a lot of this culinary diversity, with five on-site restaurants and multiple quick-service spots.
Ferraros
I’ll cut to the chase and say that Ferraro’s is my favorite restaurant in the world. I’ve been visiting this spot ever since my family discovered it, and my kids have eaten there since they could sit up.
Four Seasons Maui recently revamped the restaurant and changed its menu. I was afraid they would ruin it, but in fact they made it even better.
Ferraro’s serves Italian cuisine right by the water at the lower level of the resort. It’s family friendly, and classy without being pretentious, in the style of a traditional Italian bistro.
On the menu, you’ll find amazing pasta dishes, all of which are house-made. You’ll also find more casual fare, like pizzas, which are perfect for lunch or a lighter dinner.
The desserts are wild and wonderful–a new one is a classic “trompe l’oeil” that looks exactly like a lemon, but is actually a cake. It feels like the Netflix show Is it Cake? Has come to life.
The food at Ferraro’s is fantastic, but the setting is what really makes it special. You’ve got the waves of the Pacific and Wailea Beach below you. And as the evening goes on, the sun sets in spectacular fashion as you dine, as if it’s performing for guests.
We often take a break before dessert to walk to the beach and take photos with Scott Miles, Four Season Maui’s onsite photo ambassador. Scott, who goes by “Smiles”, started as a security guard.
As guests flocked to the resort’s beach to see the sunset, Scott would offer to take a photo on their phone. People loved this so much–and Scott is so good at it–that his role evolved into his photo-focused one.
Since my kids were born, Scott has taken our photo every year on the sands of Wailea beach. We’ve gotten to know him closely over the years, and our annual photoshoot is a family ritual. Photos with Scott are free (ask the concierge to set up a time), casual (since they’re taken on your phone) and a perfect way to either punctuate or follow your dinner at Ferraro’s.
I’ll have a full review of Ferraro’s shortly, if you want to go more in depth on this spot.
KOMO
KOMO is Four Seasons Maui’s newest restaurant, and arguably its fanciest. KOMO is a sushi and Japanese spot that’s taken over a little-used fountain area just off the resort’s lobby.
The previously tucked-away space has been transformed into a visually stunning open-air restaurant. Sushi chefs carefully craft rolls right in front of guests, and performative elements–like dramatic, mid-air tea pours–add interactivity to the meal.
The quality of the fish, though, really stands out. KOMO flies all its fish fresh from Japan. They’re purchased in the country’s iconic fish markets each day, and are the highest quality fish available anywhere.
You can have the fish prepared as classic rolls, or leave the preparation to the chef’s imagination. A Mystery Box features multiple sushi rolls prepared on the chef’s whim, and dishes like a Toro Rice Bowl allow you to get in on the cooking, preparing your own hand rolls tableside.
A full sake menu and creative cocktails round out the experience.
Dessert bentos make a perfect ending to the meal.
KOMO is a terrific new addition to the resort, and gets FS Maui in front of a big trend towards more sushi and Japanese food on Maui.
I’ll have a full review of KOMO shortly.
Lobby Lounge
If you’re looking for something a bit more casual (although still plenty fancy, since this is a Four Seasons), check out the Lobby Lounge.
It’s one of the first things you’ll see when you enter the resort, and it has lovely views over the ocean and pools below.
Lobby Lounge serves small bites and has an extensive cocktail menu. Check out the Talisman, a cocktail that takes two days to make and is served in a ceramic tiki mug crafted by a local artist.
Lobby Lounge has live music (often a local playing a ukulele) and hula performances in the evenings. It’s a great place to enjoy a slightly more casual meal.
DUO and Breakfast
DUO is Four Seasons Maui’s steak and seafood restaurant. I didn’t visit on this specific trip and haven’t been in a few years, but on my previous visits, I’ve loved their steak with bearnaise sauce for dinner.
DUO, though, is also where you’ll find breakfast at FS Maui. And what a breakfast it is!
You can order from an A La Carte menu, but the better bet is to get the buffet. It fills the whole entrance to DUO, and features all kinds of foods from multiple cuisines and places.
You’ve got standard American items like pancakes and bacon.
There’s also a pastry section with bagels, little danishes, and the like as well as fresh fruit.
There’s an entire section devoted to Asian breakfast items–miso soup, rice, ramen, and more.
There’s also an onsite smoothie bar serving “functional” drinks with add-ins like bee pollen and creatine.
If you want an omelet or another hot item, you can have that made fresh as part of the buffet too.
Our kids loved visiting the buffet especially. It’s magical for little ones to help themselves to any item they want to sample, and a cereal dispenser helps, too!
If you’re looking for something more low-key, you can also order breakfast in bed. We did this on our second morning, and it’s a nice way to linger in the room.
Some room service offerings at hotels these days are little more than a paper bag filled with tepid food. At FS Maui, it’s entirely different.
A server will bring hot items to your room on a white-tablecloth topped table.
We got coffee, eggs, hash browns, bacon and more.
Room service even comes with a little fresh flower for your table. It’s a very classy experience and definitely worth trying when you want a lazier morning.
Pantry By Madhappy
New this year is Pantry, a quick-service, grab-and-go spot on the lower level of the resort. With a menu and products designed by the upscale West Coast brand Madhappy, it’s a nice spot to grab a matcha, coffee, sandwich or pastry.
I tried Pantry’s Mango Sticky Rice Matcha, which was sweet and delicious.
I also sampled a strawberry pastry with a light, sweet cream that made an ideal light breakfast.
Gelato, smoothies, and custom clothes and accessories round out the offerings.
Spago
Spago is celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s signature restaurant at FS Maui. I haven’t been in years, as I didn’t find it as kid friendly as the other options on the property.
If you’re looking for a dazzling spot for an anniversary dinner or date night, though, Spago is a great option.
It’s located in the prime spot on property, with many tables facing directly towards the ocean. Spago serves Pacific Rim cuisine–Hawaiian, Asian and other flavors abound here.
The Pools and Beach
While there’s tons to do in the Wailea area and elsewhere on the island, this is Hawaii. It’s a tropical paradise. So you’ll want to spend lots of time in the water!
Again, FS Maui has one of the best beaches on the island, or indeed anywhere in the world. Beach attendants will set up a chair and umbrella for you if you want to sit on the beach.
Unlike at many other resorts, there’s no upcharge for this service. You’re not forced into renting a $250 chair each time you want to hang out on the sand.
The beach is one of the resort’s best features. It’s secluded, beautifully maintained, and has snorkeling right off the sand (be careful, as it’s not a lifeguarded beach). Even if you’re not going in the water, it’s a great spot to visit at night to watch the sunset.
If you need snorkel gear and other adventure sports items, there’s a rental spot right behind Ferraros, although it’s from a third party company and not FS Maui itself.
FS Maui’s pools are another highlight. The main Fountain Pool is ringed with brand-new, wooden cabanas with tables and pool chairs. As with the beach chairs, these are first-come-first-served, and there’s no upcharge for using them.
One thing I love is that you get a cabana by visiting a pool attendant at one of several attendant stations around the pool. They’ll find an open one for you, and get you set up with towels.
This is great, as open seating at other resorts can be really stressful, forcing you to (hopefully not literally) fight it out with other guests to get a spot, or perhaps annoyingly hover near a group that looks close to leaving so you can nab their chairs.
FS Maui avoids this by having attendants monitor the cabanas and assign them to guests directly. You won’t need to chase away other visitors, and you can almost always get a spot to sit.
Attendants also monitor for people who are no longer at the pool so they can reset the cabanas. That means you don’t have people dumping towels and “reserving” a spot all day. Again, much lower stress.
There’s also a Keiki pool with a (very small) waterslide, geared entirely towards kids. This is a perfect place for louder or more rambunctious play, and it’s also ringed with cabanas. We spent a lot of time here years ago when our oldest son was a baby!
Adjacent to the lobby you’ll find the resort’s iconic Serenity Pool. It has a swim-up bar, hot tubs, its own pool chair seating, and an infinity edge looking out towards Wailea Beach. It’s also 18+ and is a perfect place to retreat if you’d prefer a break from the family friendly vibes of the Fountain Pool.
The pools are heated and use saltwater instead of chlorine, which makes swimming in them a pleasure.
You can order food to the pool–try the nachos!
Luxury Cabanas
If you want a premium pool/beach experience, Four Seasons Maui rents out several luxury, ocean-front cabanas by the day.
We tried this experience on our visit. You get a special cabana with a private lawn, facing directly out to the ocean. Inside, you’ve got a fridge stocked with drinks, a table, a more extensive lounge area, nice touches like a ceiling fan, and a dedicated server.
The rental comes with nice extras like a fruit plate and either a bottle of champagne or several cocktails. You’ll also get several pool entrees for lunch.
The luxury cabana makes a great home base if you want to bop between the pool and beach, or just have a dedicated and very upscale spot to lounge with beach views. It’s also a great place to stash the copious amounts of gear you probably brought if you’re visiting with kids.
Outrigger Canoe
For a unique exercise and cultural experience, FS Maui has its own outrigger canoe. These large canoes have been used by Hawaiians for centuries to travel between islands, and they’re sturdy and stable enough to brave the ocean waters.
I did a canoe excursion at the break of dawn with my nine year old. The resort’s canoe team sets up the massive boat, and you’ll get some instruction on how to synchronize your paddling with other guests.
You’ll then run the canoe out into the surf, and paddle together out to the reef beyond the resort’s beach.
Turtles love to hang out here, and we saw a giant sea turtle languidly sliding through the waves. Our guide, Paul, dove down to the reef to get a sea urchin for my son to touch.
He also told local stories and myths throughout our trip, and told us about how outrigger canoe rowing is now a varsity sport in Hawaii.
It was an invigorating way to start the day and a great beach experience.
The Spa and Fitness Facilities
When we visited, Four Seasons Maui had just finished a complete revamp of its spa. I got to be one of the first travelers in the door to try out the new space.
The Kai Holo Spa, as it’s now known, is centrally located on the bottom level of the property. The revamp expanded the spa and fitness facilities out onto space formerly occupied by a walkway, dramatically expanding its footprint.
When you first walk in, you’re greeted by a boutique selling speciality products (including locally made oils and botanicals). You then proceed into the spa’s new Aquathermal Centre.
This is a very cool (pun partially intended) new addition to the FS Maui’s spa. Inside, you’ll find pools heated to various temperatures, from a balmy hot tub to a frigid 58 degree F plunge pool.
You’ll also find showers with various heat and cool settings, as well as a steam room and an infrared and traditional sauna. The idea is to alternate between the saunas or hot tub and the chilly plunge pools, an exercise in contrasts akin to transitioning between a toasty beach and cool ocean water.
Doing a full cold plunge was a bit too much for this intrepid reporter, but I did spend a relaxing few minutes in the sauna before plunging only my feet into the 58-degree pool. FS Maui describes the icy pool as “invigorating.”
Indeed!
In addition to the new Aquathermal Centre, the FS Maui spa has a totally redesigned relaxation room with meditative chairs, tea and water, infrared masks, and more. The whole thing was designed by Meyer Davis, a firm known for its creative use of light.
To that end, all the lights in the spa are synchronized to the cycle of a human circadian rhythm, changing throughout the day in subtle ways to mesh with how your body expects natural light to look.
One of my favorite features of the FS Maui spa’s relaxation room–snacks that include dried mango and sweet slices of coconut–have been preserved, with the inestimable addition of chocolate-covered gummy bears to the mix.
It’s nice proof that while FS Maui is changing a lot, it’s not changing everything–and it’s still willing to be a little silly and playful.
On my visit, I tested out the spa itself with a 110 minute Queen’s Garden Fern Ritual massage. This unique massage draws on locally made botanicals inspired by the plants of Hawaiian queen Lili‘uokalani’s palace garden (see the Cultural Programs section below.)
It also incorporates unique Hawaiian features like a lava mask along the spine and ti leaves, an important plant in Hawaiian culture.
It was relaxing (as any massage lasting almost two hours should be!), but also fascinating, as my massage therapist explained the local significance and origins of each botanical.
The brand new spa facility contributed to the experience. The massage table incorporated infrared light for a subtle warming effect, and the subdued light of the treatment room made the massage even more relaxing.
I’d definitely recommend the newly reopened spa if you visit FS Maui.
In addition to the spa, the renovation includes fully-updated fitness areas. There’s a lovely new gym area with views out towards the pool.
You’ll also find an outdoor exercise area with strength training and rowing equipment.
Other Amenities
FS Maui is a full resort, so there’s a huge amount to do. Although the activity list isn’t as extensive as the ones at even larger properties on the island, there are tons of ways to spend your day at the property.
Kids for All Seasons
If you’re visiting with kids, FS Maui’s onsite childcare program, Kids for All Seasons, is a great feature.
Kids for all Seasons is a full, drop-off day camp for kids 5-12 years old. It’s complimentary and quite flexible–you can drop your kids off for an hour or two while you grab lunch, or have them stay the full day.
Once there, kids swim, hunt for geckos, do arts and crafts, and generally hang out with peers. Especially if you’re traveling with a tween who wants some time with other kids, it’s a great spot.
You can also bring your younger kids under five there and hang out with them. We used to take our kids when they were toddlers, and they loved playing in the Kids for All Seasons playroom with us present.
Again, for those with kids 5-12, it’s perfect if you want a bit of time to visit that swim up bar at the Serenity pool or head to the spa!
The Game Room
This is another newly-renovated space at Four Seasons Maui, and it’s awesome.
The resort’s game room used to be tucked into a smaller space right in front of the fitness center. It had a lot of screens and video games.
Now, the game room has a dedicated space, and is centered around old-school, real-world arcade games rather than Xboxes and Playstations.
There are several pinball machines, including a very cool Star Wars machine and a Jaws machine.
You’ll also find foosball, air hockey, pool, board games, and much else. The room is nicely air conditioned, making it a perfect respite from the heat and sun. All the games are free to play.
A prohibition on alcoholic drinks makes it clear that this is a kid-friendly space. My kids spent more than an hour playing, and it’s a great spot if you want a chill activity that doesn’t involve screentime.
Cultural Programs
Like many resorts on Maui, FS Maui has a deep commitment to sharing Hawaiian culture. Many locals work at the resort, and Mopsie Tuivaioge (who goes by “Auntie Mopsie” as well as “Wendy”) leads a slate of cultural activities for guests.
In previous years, we’ve done hula lessons, palm-frond weaving, and ukulele lessons. After taking a lesson at FS Maui, I took up the instrument at home and have been playing for four years now.
On this visit, we sat down with Auntie Mopsie for a private lei-making class.
As we threaded colorful flowers onto strings, Auntie Mopsie told us about the significance of leis in Hawaiian culture and her own lei making experiences. Her flower leis have featured in national hula competitions, a major honor in Hawaii.
Auntie Mopsie also recently helped to lead the creation of a new Queen’s Garden in the upper section of the resort. It honors beloved Queen Liliʻuokalani, a revered figure in Hawaiian culture.
The garden includes plants from Queen Liliʻuokalani’s original palace on Oahu, as well as interpretive signs sharing Hawaiian history and culture with guests.
It’s a beautiful, meditative spot, and local Hawaiian elders and experts were deeply involved in its creation. There are plans to include more cultural performances and events in the Queen’s Garden now that it’s established.
The Verdict
Given that I’ve stayed there 10 times, it should come as no surprise that Four Seasons Maui is one of my favorite places in the world.
There’s a lot of factors that go into that, though. The natural beauty of FS Maui’s location matters a lot. Wailea Beach is stunning, and the property is ideally positioned to take advantage of it.
Four Seasons Maui’s size is a big factor, too. It’s a large enough resort to have plenty of options for things to do. But it’s still small enough that it feels personal and manageable. You don’t feel like you need to walk half a mile to get to everything.
The food is a big benefit of the property, too. Ferraro’s offers that rare combination of beautiful views and excellent, approachable food. So many restaurants trade on the former while largely ignoring the latter. A restaurant with both is unique and special.
KOMO is the kind of bucket list experience that makes for a destination restaurant, even if you’re not typically the kind of diner who has their sushi flown in fresh from Tokyo.
The pools, the rooms, and the spa are all big pluses of the resort. But the real reason I keep coming back is the people.
FS Maui’s staff are the absolute best in the industry. And with many staff members working at the property for years or decades–and a handful working there since it opened in the 1990s–the continuity means returning guests can truly get to know the people behind FS Maui after many years of visiting.
Scott Miles has taken every photo for our family holiday card for years now. Auntie Mopsie taught my oldest son hula when he was a toddler, and showed my youngest how to thread flowers onto his lei during our lesson this year. Practically everyone at Ferraros feels like family.
The reality is that anyone with enough resources can build a beautiful resort. Staffing it with people who make it feel like home is a different matter entirely.
FS Maui feels like such a special place because the people who work there every day put an incredible level of effort into making it feel that way–and clearly take pride in doing so.
Beyond the beaches and the gardens, the pools and the cabanas, it’s that level of personal care and commitment that makes FS Maui feel unlike anywhere else in the world.
